In
France, rock music has retained part of its
early seduction insofar as it does not belong to
mass culture to the same extent as in
English-speaking countries. Though obviously it
now is part of mass consumption, it somehow
remains on the fringes of consumer society. For
a long time, it had been restricted to an elite
(whether it be students or working class) which
had been "initiated": rock was an
exotic idiom, the music from the other side of
the Atlantic, an element of the American Dream,
of the American Way of Life.

As
such, rock has preserved an aura of mystery and
acquired a more prestigious, mythical status.
French rock magazines, for instance, are more
glamorous than their American counterparts and
rock critics see themselves as missionaries or
apostles (Les Inrockuptibles, the most
fashionable magazine of the day, is a pun on the
French for "the untouchable"); the
only rock program left on French TV is entitled
Rock Culture. And if few French artists could be
rightly described as rock artists (when they
are, their life's goal is to play in America),
most popular middle-of-the-road singers
integrate rock sounds into their music.

What
our central issue, i.e., the conflicting
relationship between rock music and mass
culture, eventually boils down to is in fact a
matter of assessing the value of this culture,
and more particularly the concept of
"mass." Some consider it as synonymous
with standardized consumption, bad taste and
fleeting fads; others, less contemptuous, give
it a positive value and stress that "popular"
does not necessarily rule out "quality."
However, the very relationship between rock and
mass culture is seldom questioned; almost
everyone agrees on equating rock music with one
of the commonest definitions of mass culture :
produced for the greatest number, consumed by
the greatest number. It must be that the
intimate links of rock music with mass
consumption blur all tensions and contradictions
between the two.

Indeed, rock depends for its growth on the basic
principles of consumer society. To launch an
artist, produce a record or mount a tour takes
time, men and machines, which require heavy
investment. American capitalism offers rock its
potency and its taste for business ventures.
Contrary to European businessmen, American
entrepreneurs are not suspicious of
entertainment. Since popular music, musicals or
plays can be profitable, they deserve the
interest of investors. As a result, show
business is more integrated in the United States
than it is in European countries. In France rock
music was able to develop thanks mainly to
student societies, which organized concerts,
published magazines, etc.

Major
record companies, often the subsidiaries of
foreign multinationals, imported British or
American rock albums irregularly, under
simplified sleeves (words, for instance, were
not printed). Rock music represented just a
fraction of their turnover. The whole music
industry feared rock audiences, the questioning
of deeply ingrained habits of dealing with
mainstream performers. It is only by the early
1980s that the specialized companies (studios,
halls, tour operators) that still function today
took shape.